Auditory – Verbal Therapy

The Auditory-Verbal Method develops spoken language and language comprehension of children with hearing loss through listening. This method

• requires the use of amplification during all waking hours
• encourages the development of speech and language through listening with their hearing aids or cochlear implants
• strongly encourages maximum parental participation at every step
• mainstreams into regular schools from the beginning or as soon as possible.

Goals and objectives focus on natural, typical developmental patterns for listening, speech, language & cognition. There are Guiding Principles that govern the process of learning listening and spoken language. The ultimate goal for families who choose the Auditory-Verbal method is confidence that the child with hearing loss will have access to a full range of academic, social and occupational choices.

An Auditory-Verbal Program requires adherence to all 10 of the following guidelines:

Guiding Principles of Auditory-Verbal Therapy:

1. Promote early diagnosis of hearing loss in newborns, infants, toddlers and young children, followed by immediate audiologic management and auditory-verbal therapy.
2. Recommend immediate assessment and use of appropriate, state-of-the-art hearing technology to obtain maximum benefits of auditory stimulation.
3. Guide and coach parents* to help their child use hearing as the primary sensory modality in developing listening and spoken language.
4. Guide and coach parents to become the primary facilitators of their child’s listening and spoken language development through active consistent participation in individualized auditory-verbal therapy.
5. Guide and coach parents to create environments that support listening for the acquisition of spoken language throughout the child’s daily activities.
6. Guide and coach parents to help their child integrate listening and spoken language into all aspects of the child’s life.
7. Guide and coach parents to use natural developmental patterns of audition, speech, language, cognition and communication.
8. Guide and coach parents to help their child self-monitor spoken language through listening.
9. Administer ongoing formal and informal diagnostic assessments to develop individualized auditory-verbal treatment plans, to monitor progress and to evaluate the effectiveness of the plans for the child and family.
10. Promote education in regular schools with peers who have typical hearing and with appropriate services from early childhood onwards.

*The term “parents” also includes grandparents, relatives, guardians and any caregivers who interact with the child.

(Adapted from the Principles originally developed by Doreen Pollack in 1970.) Adopted by the AG Bell Academy for Listening and Spoken Language on Nov. 6, 2009.